DOCSLIB.ORG

Background to Beowulf Defining Kenning Examples of Kennings In

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Background to Beowulf Defining Kenning Examples of Kennings In Kennings in Beowulf: Examples Lesson Transcript This lesson shows you examples of kennings, or (1) _____ phrases, in the Old English epic poem 'Beowulf.' After this lesson, you'll understand what a kenning is, the purpose of a kenning, and examples of kennings in 'Beowulf.' Background to Beowulf Beowulf is an epic poem written in (2) _____. It is the story of the warrior, Beowulf, who comes to ght the monster, Grendel. Grendel has been attacking the hall of the Danish king, and so the Danish king asked Beowulf to come and help. Beowulf kills Grendel, but then Grendel's mother comes after Beowulf in revenge of her son. Beowulf kills Grendel's mother too. The last of Beowulf's feats is killing a dragon that ends up killing Beowulf as well. Beowulf is full of kennings, a literary device common in Old English poems. Kennings were used to add description, richness, and meaning to the poem. The kinds of kennings in Beowulf include words to replace battle words, God, Grendel, and the sea. Defining Kenning Kenning is a two-word (3) ____ used in place of a word. A kenning is a literary device used in Old English or Norse poetry. Basically, a kenning was a fancy way of talking about something, which is why it was used in poetry. Instead of saying ordinary words like 'sea,' 'armor,' 'god,' or proper names like 'Grendel,' Old English used (4) _____ words, or joined words, in place of one word. Unlike an actual metaphor or simile where the word that is being replaced is named, such as 'the queen was like a gazelle' or 'the queen was a gazelle,' a kenning would not say 'the queen'. A kenning would just replace a word like 'the queen' with '(5) _____', and the reader would be expected to know that 'gazelle' was referring to 'the queen'. Because a kenning does not say the word that is being compared, just the compound phrase in its place, a reader must already know before (6) _____ a text that, for instance, 'sail-road' means '(7) ______.' Examples of Kennings in Beowulf Sail-road = the sea 1/2 To Scandinavian heroes, peoples, and cultures like Beowulf and the Danes, the sea was an important part of their everyday lives. There were many names for the sea in Old English poetry. The poet uses the kenning sail-road for sea because it was like a road that ships would sail on. The sea was also called the swan road and the (8) _____ road in Old English poetry. Battle-sark = armor Sark is another word for a shirt, so in essence 'battle-shirt' was the kenning used for armor. Because Beowulf is a poem that describes a lot of battles, fights between Beowulf and various monsters, war words like 'armor' were used often. These war words were replaced by kennings, such as battle-(9) _____ for armor. Glory of kings = God, Wielder of glory = God, and Wielder of worship = God The importance of religion in Beowulf is particularly evident in the many kennings for 'God'. Instead of saying the word 'God', the poem uses glory of kings, wielder of glory, and wielder of worship. The words 'glory' and 'wielder' tell us that God is seen as full of (10) _____ and as a wielder, a warrior in a fight for good and evil. Shepherd of evil = Grendel and Monster of evil = Grendel Grendel is the main villain in Beowulf and he is called by various names including shepherd of evil and monster of (11) ____. Purpose of Kennings You might ask, 'If a kenning just replaces a word, what is the point of a kenning? Why not just use the original word?' Well, kennings add an extra layer of meaning. Kennings make the description and the story (12) _____. By saying 'sail-road' instead of 'the sea' the poem adds a description that tells the story of a people that travel by boat often. Calling God a 'wielder of glory' gives some insight into how the people who told the story of Beowulf might understand God. Lesson Summary The use of (13) _____ in the Old English poem Beowulf replaces words with metaphorical phrases. The purpose of a kenning is to add an extra layer of description, richness, and meaning. Beowulf= has many examples of kennings, including kennings to replace words about the (14) _____, battle, God, and (15) _____. Beowulf's Word-Hoard: -- metaphorical -- kennings -- sea -- glory -- sark -- whale -- reading -- gazelle -- compound -- sea -- richer -- Grendel -- metaphor -- evil -- Old English. 2/2.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • ABSTRACT Savannah Dehart. BRACTEATES AS INDICATORS OF
    ABSTRACT Savannah DeHart. BRACTEATES AS INDICATORS OF NORTHERN PAGAN RELIGIOSITY IN THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES. (Under the direction of Michael J. Enright) Department of History, May 2012. This thesis investigates the religiosity of some Germanic peoples of the Migration period (approximately AD 300-800) and seeks to overcome some difficulties in the related source material. The written sources which describe pagan elements of this period - such as Tacitus’ Germania, Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People, and Paul the Deacon’s History of the Lombards - are problematic because they were composed by Roman or Christian authors whose primary goals were not to preserve the traditions of pagans. Literary sources of the High Middle Ages (approximately AD 1000-1400) - such as The Poetic Edda, Snorri Sturluson’s Prose Edda , and Icelandic Family Sagas - can only offer a clearer picture of Old Norse religiosity alone. The problem is that the beliefs described by these late sources cannot accurately reflect religious conditions of the Early Middle Ages. Too much time has elapsed and too many changes have occurred. If literary sources are unavailing, however, archaeology can offer a way out of the dilemma. Rightly interpreted, archaeological evidence can be used in conjunction with literary sources to demonstrate considerable continuity in precisely this area of religiosity. Some of the most relevant material objects (often overlooked by scholars) are bracteates. These coin-like amulets are stamped with designs that appear to reflect motifs from Old Norse myths, yet their find contexts, including the inhumation graves of women and hoards, demonstrate that they were used during the Migration period of half a millennium earlier.
    [Show full text]
  • "Ok Er Þetta Upphaf´"--First-Stanza Quotation in Old Norse Prosimetrum
    Judy Quinn “Ok er þetta upphaf”— First-Stanza Quotation in Old Norse Prosimetrum* hen prosimetrum involves the quotation of poetry — as medieval Scandinavian prosimetrum almost invariably does1 — the narrator’s voice is at once in competition with another voice, which through its Wpoetic form is graced with significance and authority. Verse quotations in sagas are conventionally very short, most typically of only one stanza, but occa- sionally of two, three, or more stanzas. As the evidence of other records demon- strates, however, a verse presented by a saga-narrator as a lausavísa, or single- stanza composition, may well be an excerpt from a longer poem.2 Sometimes acknowledgement is made of the loosening of the stanza from the whole poem through the narrator’s mention of the poem’s name, particularly in kings’ sagas where praise and memorial poems are frequently cited to verify aspects of an account,3 but even in this genre — avowedly indebted to the existence of whole * I am grateful to the Modern Language Association of America and the organizers of the Discussion Group on Old Norse Literature at the 1995 convention for inviting me to present an earlier version of this article there. 1. One important exception to this is Snorri Sturluson’s pedagogic prosimetrum composition, Hátta- tal, in which Snorri follows the learned Latin practice of crafting prosimetrum from his own verse and prose. Otherwise Old Norse prosimetrum seems to have conventionally been composed of prose and quoted poetry — either as evidence of events narrated or as the declamations of the participants in the narrative (see Einarsson 1974 and Friis-Jensen 1987 for a survey of these types).
    [Show full text]
  • What Is a Kenning? Kennings Are Like Riddles
    Year 4 English Lessons – 1st – 5th February st Monday 1 February 2021 – Live Lesson Today you will be learning about what kennings are and how they are created. Read the information below (pages 1-3) about kennings. Then use page 4 to plan your own kenning about yourself and use page 5 to write your kenning. What is a Kenning? Kennings are like riddles. They describe something without ever saying what it is. They are made up of a noun (object) + noun or a noun + verb (action word). Kennings are often found in Anglo-Saxon and Norse poems. Read the poems below out loud. What could they describe? lip-licking sauce-swirling chin-dripping flake-holding tongue-freezing cone-filling This kenning is about ice cream. Was your guess correct? What about this one: tail-wagger ball-catcher cat-chaser sofa-hugger face-licker This kenning is about a dog. Was your guess correct? 1 What do you notice about the 2 kennings poems? Here the phrases are made up of Here the phrases are made up of a noun (object) + a verb (doing a noun (object) + a verb (doing word) by adding -er to the verb. word) by adding -ing to the verb. Each line of the poem is made of a two-word phrase. The words are joined by a hyphen. It does not tell the reader what it is about. It gives the readers clues about the subject matter 2 3 Activity:- Monday 1st February 2021 Use this planning sheet to write down ideas for a kenning poem about yourself.
    [Show full text]
  • An Investigation of the Kennings in Ragnarsdrápa and Øxarflokkr
    Universitet i Oslo, Fall 2013 Exploring the Emotive versus the Scholarly: an Investigation of the Kennings in Ragnarsdrápa and Øxarflokkr By Sydney A. Krell Guidance: Mikael Males Master Thesis in Nordic Viking and Medieval Culture Summary The poetry of Bragi inn Gamli and Einarr Skúlason has been thoroughly studied by many Old Norse scholars, but never directly in comparison to one another. This paper will investigate the nuances of each author’s verse, specifically regarding the way in which they utilize kennings, and draw conclusions based upon their similarities and differences. Both Bragi and Einarr composed within the same language, geographical area, and poetic tradition; they used similar kenning types that evolve from pagan imagery; and each describes a precious weapon given to them by a ruler whom they praise via a traditional skaldic long style poem. However, they could not be more different. This is due to the fact that Einarr’s kennings are meant to show his scholastic prowess, and Bragi’s are meant to affect his audience and move his plot based verse forward. The poetry of Bragi Boddason makes use of pagan mythology, ekphrasis, nýgerving, ofljóst and metaphors in the form of kennings, just as the poetry of Einarr Skúlason does. And yet the poems differ so greatly. Bragi’s kennings are meant to affect his audience on an emotional level, whereas Einarr’s are meant to impress on a scholarly level. Each author accomplishes magnificent prose, but with different expectations and outcomes achieved. 1 Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor Mikael Males for his support, useful comments, encouragement and guidance throughout the process of writing my master thesis.
    [Show full text]
  • JL Borges and the Poetic Art of the Icelandic Skalds
    Sigrún Á. Eiríksdóttir “El verso incorruptible” Jorge Luis Borges and the Poetic Art of the Icelandic Skalds If the same words were repeated over and again, they could fade and become like a shaped coin, “stiff and dead upon the earth”. Einar Ólafur Sveinsson, Við uppspretturnar (At the Source). The kenning as rhetoric (of myth and history) round 1220 the Icelandic writer and historian, Snorri Sturlu- son, wrote a treatise on the rhetoric art of the skaldic poetry (“Skáldskaparmál”) which some seven hundred years later A 1 was partly reproduced by Borges in Argentina. When Borges wrote his essay on the kennings in 1933, he had not be- gun his studies of Old Norse and based his observations on transla- tions, into both English and German as indicated by his appendixed bibliography. Yet we can suppose that he had already become ac- quainted with the basic principle behind the kennings when he was a young boy and read Völsungasaga in the translation of William Morris 1 “Las kenningar”, in Historia de la eternidad. All references to Borges’ work (unless otherwise stated) are to Jorge Luis Borges, Obras completas, hereafter referred to as OC. On Snorri and Borges’ fascination and admiration for him see Literaturas germá- nicas medievales (LGM hereafter), the poem “Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241)” (El otro, el mismo), and my essay “‘La alucinación del lector’. Jorge Luis Borges and the legacy of Snorri Sturluson”. Variaciones Borges 2/1996 38 Sigrún Á. Eiríksdóttir and Eiríkr Magnússon.2 There he would have come across archaisms and even coinages from Germanic roots which the translators resorted to in order to capture the ancient and “barbaric” flavour of the original.
    [Show full text]
  • Rędende Iudithše: the Heroic, Mythological and Christian Elements in the Old English Poem Judith
    University of San Diego Digital USD Undergraduate Honors Theses Theses and Dissertations Fall 12-22-2015 Rædende Iudithðe: The eH roic, Mythological and Christian Elements in the Old English Poem Judith Judith Caywood Follow this and additional works at: https://digital.sandiego.edu/honors_theses Part of the European Languages and Societies Commons, and the Literature in English, British Isles Commons Digital USD Citation Caywood, Judith, "Rædende Iudithðe: The eH roic, Mythological and Christian Elements in the Old English Poem Judith" (2015). Undergraduate Honors Theses. 15. https://digital.sandiego.edu/honors_theses/15 This Undergraduate Honors Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Digital USD. It has been accepted for inclusion in Undergraduate Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Digital USD. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Rædende Iudithðe: The Heroic, Mythological and Christian Elements in the Old English Poem Judith ______________________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty and the Honors Program Of the University of San Diego ______________________ By Jude Caywood Interdisciplinary Humanities 2015 Caywood 2 Judith is a character born from the complex multicultural forces that shaped Anglo-Saxon society, existing liminally between the mythological, the heroic and the Christian. Simultaneously Germanic warrior, pagan demi-goddess or supernatural figure, and Christian saint, Judith arbitrates amongst the seemingly incompatible forces that shaped the poet’s world, allowing the poem to serve as an important site for the making of a new Anglo-Saxon identity, one which would eventually come to be the united English identity. She becomes a single figure who is able to reconcile these opposing forces within herself and thereby does important cultural work for the world for which the poem was written.
    [Show full text]
  • Snorri Sturluson Skáldskaparmál 2
    Snorri Sturluson Edda Skáldskaparmál 2 Snorri Sturluson Edda Skáldskaparmál 2. Glossary and Index of Names Edited by ANTHONY FAULKES VIKING SOCIETY FOR NORTHERN RESEARCH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON 1998 © Anthony Faulkes 1998 First published by Viking Society for Northern Research 1998 Reprinted with minor corrections 2007 ISBN: 978 0 903521 38 3 Volume 2, paper bound edition Printed by Short Run Press Limited, Exeter Contents of Volume 1 Introduction ............................................................................. vii Title ....................................................................................... vii Synopsis ...............................................................................viii The composition of the work ............................................... x Date and authorship.............................................................. xi The verse quotations ..........................................................xiii The flulur .............................................................................. xv The dialogue frame...........................................................xviii The prose narratives .......................................................... xxii The analysis of poetic diction .......................................... xxv Purpose............................................................................xxxvii Manuscripts ..................................................................... xxxix This edition ...........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • 49 a Stemmatic Analysis of the Prose Edda a STEMMATIC ANALYSIS OF
    A Stemmatic Analysis of the Prose Edda 49 A STEMMATIC ANALYSIS OF THE PROSE EDDA BY HAUKUR ÞORGEIRSSON Stofnun Árna Magnússonar í íslenskum fræðum Introduction The Prose Edda, attributed to Snorri Sturluson (1179–1241), is preserved in eight manuscripts predating 1600. They are as follows: R = r = Codex Regius, GKS 2367 4to (c.1300) T = Codex Trjajectinus, Traj 1374 (c. 1595) W = Codex Wormianus, AM 242 fol. (c.1350) U = Codex Upsaliensis, DG 11 (c.1300–25) H = w = AM 756 4to (15th century)1 A = AM 748 I b 4to (c.1300–25) B = AM 757 a 4to (c.1400) C = AM 748 II 4to = AM 1e fol. (c. 1400)2 For some time the prevailing view has been that it is difficult or impossible β to elucidate satisfactorily the relationship between these manuscripts. The introduction to Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 2 (Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages II) contains no fewer than eleven stemmas for the various sources used in it, including for example Orkneyinga saga, Knýtlinga saga and Heimskringla. But the edition declines to draw up a stemma for the Edda, noting rather that ‘it is very difficult to establish a stemma for the mss of SnE’ (Gade 2009, lxxvii), and citing Anthony Faulkes’s edition of the first part of the Edda. Faulkes has this to say (2005, xxx): Attempts have . been made to establish a stemma of the relationships of the principal manuscripts, but these have resulted in little agreement. While R, T and AM 748 II 4to clearly form one group and AM 748 I b 4to and AM 757 a 4to another, the relationships of these groups to W and U are more complicated than a conventional stemma can indicate.
    [Show full text]
  • The Waning Sword E Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in Beowulf DWARD the Waning Sword Conversion Imagery and EDWARD PETTIT P
    The Waning Sword E Conversion Imagery and Celestial Myth in Beowulf DWARD The Waning Sword Conversion Imagery and EDWARD PETTIT P The image of a giant sword mel� ng stands at the structural and thema� c heart of the Old ETTIT Celestial Myth in Beowulf English heroic poem Beowulf. This me� culously researched book inves� gates the nature and signifi cance of this golden-hilted weapon and its likely rela� ves within Beowulf and beyond, drawing on the fi elds of Old English and Old Norse language and literature, liturgy, archaeology, astronomy, folklore and compara� ve mythology. In Part I, Pe� t explores the complex of connota� ons surrounding this image (from icicles to candles and crosses) by examining a range of medieval sources, and argues that the giant sword may func� on as a visual mo� f in which pre-Chris� an Germanic concepts and prominent Chris� an symbols coalesce. In Part II, Pe� t inves� gates the broader Germanic background to this image, especially in rela� on to the god Ing/Yngvi-Freyr, and explores the capacity of myths to recur and endure across � me. Drawing on an eclec� c range of narra� ve and linguis� c evidence from Northern European texts, and on archaeological discoveries, Pe� t suggests that the T image of the giant sword, and the characters and events associated with it, may refl ect HE an elemental struggle between the sun and the moon, ar� culated through an underlying W myth about the the� and repossession of sunlight. ANING The Waning Sword: Conversion Imagery and Celesti al Myth in Beowulf is a welcome contribu� on to the overlapping fi elds of Beowulf-scholarship, Old Norse-Icelandic literature and Germanic philology.
    [Show full text]
  • Skaldic Poetry: a Short Introduction
    Skaldic Poetry: A Short Introduction We’re going to begin with a little story. It’s about the origin of poetry and it starts with spit. Back in the days of myth, two bands of gods, the Æsir and the Vanir, waged a heavy war. They eventually forged a peace agreement and, in order to seal the pact, they each spat into a huge vat, comparable in size to the great well of Memory which lay at the roots of the World Tree. What happened next was a wonder to all. As the spittle intermingled, the liquid began to move and shape itself into a living being. Óðinn, chief of the Æsir, named the being Quash. It turned out that Quash was the wisest of the wise, but he was restless and went roaming far and wide to quench his thirst for knowledge. One day, when Quash was Journeying in the east, he came across the dwarves FJalar and Galar. FJalar invited him to their home and they seemed nice enough, so Quash accepted the invitation. Maybe it was by accident, or intention, or in the heat of an argument that it happened, but the outcome was certain alright: Quash was killed at the hands of FJalar and Galar. Perhaps Quash was not so wise after all. FJalar and Galar acted fast. They drained the blood from Quash’s pale corpse, blended it with the sweetest of honey, and then left the mixture to brew in a barrel. The mead they created was so intoxicating that anyone who had even the tinniest sip would utter honey-sweet words and poetry would rush from their mouth like a fierce river.
    [Show full text]
  • The Boreal Borges
    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2013-05-31 The Boreal Borges Jonathan C. Williams Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the Classics Commons, and the Comparative Literature Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation Williams, Jonathan C., "The Boreal Borges" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 3597. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3597 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Boreal Borges Jonathan C. Williams A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Steven Sondrup, Chair David Laraway Larry Peer Department of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature Brigham Young University June 2013 Copyright © 2013 Jonathan C. Williams All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT The Boreal Borges Jonathan C. Williams Department of Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature, BYU Master of Arts Jorge Luis Borges’s story “El Zahir” describes a moment where the protagonist finds rest from his monomania by reworking one of the central texts in Old Germanic myth, the story of Sigurd and Brynhild. The approach taken here by the protagonist is the paradigm used in this thesis for understanding Borges’s own strong readings of Old Germanic literature, specifically Old Scandinavian texts. In chapter one, a brief outline of the myth of Sigurd and Brynhild, with a particular emphasis on Gram, the sword that lied between them, is provided and juxtaposed with Borges’s own family history, focusing on the family’s storied military past.
    [Show full text]
  • Guð Launar Fyrir Hrafninn“ an Analysis of the Usage of the Raven Kenning in Old Norse Skaldic Poetry
    „Guð launar fyrir hrafninn“ An analysis of the usage of the raven kenning in Old Norse skaldic poetry Ritgerð til M.A.-prófs í Viking and Medieval Norse Studies Kristine Mærsk Werner Kt.: 060693-4129 Leiðbeinendur: Luke John Murphy & Torfi Tulinius May 2019 MA-thesis Kristine Mærsk Werner Viking and Medieval Norse Studies Spring 2019 Abstract The purpose of the following thesis is to examine the use and meaning of kennings related to ravens in Old Norse poetry. The importance of the raven in the literary corpus of Old Norse poetry is still not properly understood, and this thesis is an attempt to get a little closer to the significance the bird may have had during the Viking Age. The first part of the thesis focuses on the different ways in which the raven was used within skaldic poetry. We begin by examining the kennings which have ravens as their referents – that is, the kennings which can be interpreted to directly mean raven. Links between the raven and other birds through the invocation of common traits are examined, as are connections with the warrior archetype. Thereafter, the kennings which use the word ‘hrafn’ as a base word are studied, and the connection between Old Norse and Old English skaldic tradition considered. Lastly, the thesis will analyse three poems all given the same title: Hrafnsmál. The purpose of this will be to answer the following: how is the raven used in these poems, and are the uses different? Does the title Hrafnsmál have any significance as to the content of the poems? It is argued on the basis of this comparison that Hrafnsmál did not constitute a medieval genre of raven-based poetry, although there are notable similarities between two of the three poems examined.
    [Show full text]